“And Now it’s Time to Say Goodbye…” Annette Funicello Remembered

Mine is the generation of American children who grew up in between iterations of The Mickey Mouse Club. Still, when late 1970’s peanut better commercials brought Annette Funicello to our television screen, I fell in love like the generation of teenaged boys before me.

Today, Annette Funicello succumbed to complications of multiple sclerosis after more than twenty years fighting the disease she shared with us.

While some people don’t like to say that we “fight” MS, Annette was always open about our disease and was once quoted as saying, “”I think you only have two choices in this kind of situation. Either you give in to it or you fight it. I intend to fight.”

Well, fight she did.

While filming a spoof of the 1960’s “Beach” films she made famous with teen heartthrob, Frankie Avalon, she noticed the first of what we all know to be MS symptoms. By the time a reunion tour with Avalon drew to a close in the early ‘90s there was no denying that something was wrong. She was officially diagnosed in 1992.

When I heard my doctor confirm, “You have multiple sclerosis”, Annette was the first person I thought of. She had been open enough about her MS that even I, someone who knew nothing about MS, knew she had the disease. I remembered her as a beautiful actor, singer and dancer who I’d last seen interviewed in a wheel chair and whose life with MS the 1995 TV movie “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” was made.

I always hoped I might get the chance to meet Annette one day. I even teased my father that I might have the chance. He might have had the Mickey Mouse ears tucked in a trunk from his childhood, I chided, but I was now part of a much more exclusive club with the actress, The MS Club.

I won’t, of course, get that chance now. But that doesn’t mean I can’t say how much her struggles were mine, how her triumphs I shared and how I cared about her life with multiple sclerosis because my life is with MS.

Her children, Gina, Jacky and Jason Gilardi, released a statement earlier today saying, in part, “”She is no longer suffering anymore and is now dancing in heaven. We love and will miss her terribly.” I truly hope she is dancing and I, too, will miss her terribly… even if I never had the chance to meet our lovely warrior.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Trevis Gleason

Trevis L. Gleason is a food journalist and published author, an award-winning chef and culinary instructor who has taught at institutions such as Cornell University, New England Culinary Institute and...read more